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Wednesday, 20 July 2011

S.H.Figuarts Shadow Moon Review

Returning to the realm of karate bug men, we take a look at Kamen Rider BLACK’s nemesis, Lord Shadow Moon.Shadow Moon, aka Akizuki Nobuhiko, stepbrother to Minami Koutarou (Kamen Rider BLACK). Akizuki Nobuhiko was born on the day of a solar eclipse with his stepbrother Minami Koutarou. When the two were of ideal age, Golgom captured both of them and infused each of them with a King Stone. While Koutarou managed to escape and used his new modified body for good, Nobuhiko’s mind was wiped clean and became Shadow Moon. Serving as Golgom’s general, he constantly seek to fight against Kamen Rider BLACK so as to officially become the next Creation King.

The box comes wrapped in trading paper because...

...the box has a shiny metallic coating! Kudos to Tamashii Nations' tracing paper wrapping, because this silver box is a fingerprint magnet.

The figure is very detailed, especially the head sculpt. All the mechanical details are very nicely sculpted into the head, and look at those gorgeous compound eyes. Much like Black, the King Stone on Shadow Moon's belt is made of clear plastic. In Shadow Moon's case, green plastic is used, whereas red clear plastic was used for Black's King Stone.

Those...thingums at the back of the feet are on hinge, so they can move around like they did in the show.

The cool thing about Shadow Moon is that he looks fearsome even in a walking pose. He has the aesomw and fearsome aura around him in the show, and this aspect seems to be brought over to the figure as well. place him among your other Figuarts and you'll see the aura he gives off for yourself.

Shadow Moon comes with a few, but sufficient accessories. He has two extra pairs of hands, namely open hands and a pair of holding things hand. Shadow Moon also comes with his Satan Sabre and his Shadow Sabres (from BLACK RX).

I think Shadow Moon’s a pretty decent release. Combining all the Figuarts technology to date, we have the most articulate Shadow Moon figure in toy history, coupled with very detailed sculpt and very nice paint finish. The chrome silver is neat to look at, and the clear red plastic used for the swords are very nice to behold as well. All that said, mine has a slight mispaint on the right shin. It seems that the painting team missed a small spot on a small black spot unpainted on the shin. While the accessory count isn’t the highest, it’s good enough for me. It’s everything that Shadow Moon needs.